James C. Hardin, III

For over 40 years, James C. “Jim” Hardin III has devoted his legal career to complex estate planning matters, including business succession, asset protection, probate, trust administration, charitable giving and service as an expert witness in trust and estate litigation matters.

Jim is a board-certified specialist in estate planning and probate law in both North and South Carolina. He has been an elected fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) since 1986, serving as its South Carolina State chair from 2001 to 2006. He has also been selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America® in Trusts and Estates since 1987 receiving its 2014 Charlotte Trust and Estates “Lawyer of the Year” distinction, as well as South Carolina and North Carolina Super Lawyers® on numerous occasions, including having been selected as one of the top 100 North Carolina Super Lawyers® in all fields of law in 2006 and listed in Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite.  He also holds Martindale-Hubbell's highest AV-preeminent rating.

Jim has served all manner of clients including closely held business owners, corporate executives, artists, farmers and ranchers. By way of representative matters, several years ago he assisted one of the Charlotte area's wealthiest families in effectuating a unitrust conversion of 49 separate trusts worth in the aggregate $500 million. He was retained to revise Duke University's Charitable Giving forms. Jim has served as an expert witness in approximately 30 estate and trust cases in both state and federal courts. He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with other attorneys and specialists as a speaker on estate planning matters. He is also a published author and has helped sculpt estate planning laws in both North and South Carolina.  Since 2006 Jim has been certified as a South Carolina Circuit Court Mediator. He has chaired or served as a member of South and North Carolina Bar committees which have studied and assisted in enacting the South Carolina Probate Code in 1986, the South and North Carolina Trust Codes in 2005, the revised Uniform Principal and Income Act in both Carolinas and the South Carolina Prudent Investor Act.

In 2019 the South Carolina Bar conferred upon Jim the Robert P. Wilkins award for meritorious service to the practice of probate, estate and trust law in South Carolina.